FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Natalya Buchwald, Amigos Park Coalition

Phone: 949-698-3490

Amigos Park Coalition Demands Dignity for Full Park Vision

Washington, DC - [Friday, August 1, 2025]

The Amigos Park Coalition calls out the DC Mayor’s and Department of General Services’ failure to secure the parcel of land to fulfill the long standing vision of building Amigos Park. During the recent budget hearings, DGS admitted that the Mayor urged them to abandon negotiations with Medgal Investments, the private landowner, despite reaching an agreed upon number within the allotted budget. DGS and the Mayor’s office have suggested they will proceed with a reduced design limited to city land, cutting the park plan in half.

“So after essentially ten years of working on this, the community is going to walk away without the full site, without the full park.” — Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, June 12, 2025 budget hearing

Notably, during the same period as the budget hearings, an ANC 1D resolution was introduced, but has since been pulled, to remove the fence on the site with private business funding and without robust community engagement. This decision has raised concerns if private businesses intend to proceed unilaterally, sidelining community input and collaboration. The Coalition reaffirms the 2023 ANC 1D resolution that committed to ensuring the Amigos Park Coalition and community input are meaningfully involved in all decisions about the park’s design and future.

The Coalition and community members have not sat idly by. This spring, the Coalition organized a well-attended Public Land Teach-In on April 26 to educate neighbors about public land use, privatization pressures, and the threats of displacement of the people who built Mt. Pleasant. The event underscored that Amigos Park is not a patch of grass but a symbol of cultural memory, immigrant roots, and a right to stay in place as the city gentrifies around us.

We are launching a community letter-writing campaign to Mayor Bowser, demanding the DC government deliver the full Amigos Park vision without delay. We call on all neighbors and supporters to join us in sending letters that make clear this community refuses to accept half measures.

The Amigos Park Coalition wishes to honor the memory of our founder, Arturo Griffiths, whose recent passing on June 18th, 2025, is a profound loss for our community. Arturo’s vision for a welcoming, culturally rooted public space brought neighbors together across generations. His tireless commitment to justice, inclusion, and community power continues to inspire our work. We dedicate our ongoing efforts to realizing the full park he dreamed of for Mount Pleasant. Our vision remains unchanged: a beautiful, welcoming, culturally rooted park and a design that tells the story of Mount Pleasant’s diverse working-class and immigrant communities.

About Amigos Park Coalition

Founded in 2014, the Amigos Park Coalition is a volunteer-led alliance committed to delivering an inclusive public space that honors Mount Pleasant’s history and sustains its community. We believe the fight for Amigos Park is part of a broader struggle for democracy through community-controlled public land: ensuring residents have real power to shape their neighborhoods, resist displacement, and protect public space from privatization.The Coalition is actively engaging neighbors, local organizations, and allies citywide to build support and ensure every voice that wants a full, dignified, community-designed park is heard loud and clear. Learn more at amigospark.com and follow us at instagram.com/amigosparkcoalition